The swanky department store said Wednesday that Chairman and CEO Michael Gould, a retail maven who has led the company to prominence over the course of two decades, is retiring to make way for Tony Spring, the retailer’s 48-year-old president and operating chief.

The change, effective Feb. 1, ends an era in which the 70-year-old Gould expanded Bloomingdale’s across the US and burnished its upscale image.

Following a stint at the helm of Giorgio of Beverly Hills, the Boston native took the reins at Bloomingdale’s in 1991 from the legendary merchant Marvin Traub

Traub, who died last year at age 87, built Bloomingdale’s in the 1970s and 1980s by staging splashy media blitzes with A-list celebrities like Jackie Onassis and the Queen of England.

Gould, however, said he decided early on against continuing Traub’s over-the-top events at the retailer’s flagship store on East 59th Street.

That’s because locations in other major markets appeared relatively neglected while the New York flagship displayed museum-grade exotica, such as a collection of imperial robes from China.

“For me, there had to be mentality that talked about all our stores, not just this incredible emphasis on 59th Street,” Gould told The Post in an interview.

“It was about being an exciting store outside of New York as well,” he said.

Paying closer attention to big stores in markets like Chicago, Los Angeles and Houston paid big dividends for Bloomingdale’s, fueling a 20-year expansion that stretched most recently all the way to Dubai.

“Marvin brought theater to Bloomingdale’s,” said Billy Susman, managing director at Threadstone Partners, a New York investment bank focused on the retail sector.